Simcoe County updates funding allocations for hospitals
Posted August 6, 2026
Simcoe County staff are recommending nearly $9 million in capital funding for two hospitals, with Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston set to receive almost $4 million as its long-planned redevelopment advances into the detailed planning stage.
A report to the county's Aug. 11 committee of the whole recommends providing $3,998,665 to Stevenson Memorial Hospital and $4,981,317 to Collingwood General and Marine Hospital after minor funding reductions tied to ambulance offload-delay performance. The recommendations are part of the county's long-term Simcoe County Hospital Alliance capital funding program.
The report identifies Stevenson Memorial as the most advanced of the county's seven alliance hospitals in the provincial capital planning process, having reached Stage 2.1, known as Block Schematics.
Five hospitals remain in earlier planning phases. County staff say the allocation will support continued progress on the Alliston hospital's redevelopment project.
County policy links annual capital payments to emergency department transfer-of-care performance, measuring how quickly paramedics can transfer patients to hospital staff. Stevenson Memorial recorded a 90th-percentile transfer time of 32 minutes in 2025, slightly above the county's 30-minute target, resulting in a $1,335 reduction from its requested funding. By comparison, Collingwood's larger delay produced an $18,683 adjustment.
The report notes that transfer-of-care times generally improved across the hospital alliance compared with the previous year, although several hospitals remained above the county's target.
Staff also said changes to provincial offload nursing funding affected Stevenson Memorial and Collingwood, both of which received no funding for the program during the 2025-26 fiscal year. Hospitals were initially able to maintain staffing levels but later experienced increases in offload times as funding pressures grew.
If approved, the funding will be drawn from the county's Hospital Reserve Fund, which had a balance of $16 million at the end of 2025. County staff also plan to bring forward a revised hospital alliance funding framework before the current agreement expires 2031.
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